But I think for many (most?) people, this is just another tree-hugging fad, and besides that, it just costs too damn much.

Maybe not.  Here in a very mainstream source (Popular Science) is an article that should seriously alarm you:

How Pigs on Antibiotics Are Making Superbugs Stronger

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, (MRSA) a nasty strain of bacteria that resists most antibiotics, probably developed its defenses while spending time down on the farm, a new study says. It has been thought that humans’ antibiotic abuse is the catalyst in superbug genesis, but this new research suggests it’s the animals, and the drugs we feed them, that we should worry about.

A new paper in the journal mBio, published by the American Society for Microbiology, describes how a human strain of MRSA started out as a drug-defeatable bug and then transferred into the pig population, where it developed resistance to two common forms of antibiotics. Then the newly potent antibiotic-resistant staph jumped back into humans. Researchers traced its evolutionary history by examining 89 genomes from humans, turkeys, chickens and pigs from 19 countries.

It goes on to say [my emphasis added]:

The CC398 strain of MRSA first appeared in 2003, and is found in pigs, cattle and poultry in the United States, researchers said. It’s in nearly half of all meat in the U.S. food supply, according to the American Society for Microbiology.

Read the whole article here.  Once again, it would appear that the industrialization of our food that started about mid-20th-century may have resulted in temporarily higher yields and lower consumer prices, but also in steadily eroding quality and nutritional value, and ever mounting environmental and health consequences. Whatever purported savings there may have been (much of which is neatly banked by the agro-industrial complex) is more than offset by the cost of the mess left behind.   Sustainable food production, which includes the natural raising of meat animals, will ultimately prove to be the only system we can live with.

So, your choices do matter.  Two great examples of where to find meat from animals that have never been given antibiotics, and are humanely and sustainably raised are el salchichero in Santa Cruz and Prather Ranch Meat Company, in San Francisco, and both at several farmers markets.  Our friends at Gather Restaurant in Berkeley also ensure that they will only use meat that is humanly and sustainably raised.

–posted by Steven

picture from gemplers.com

We receive catalogs for farming supplies that feature products like this. Now, I have nothing bad to say about gemplers, the company whose safety products are pictured here – they seem to be a fine company.  My point is simply that needing to wear safety equipment like this is standard practice when dealing with the kinds of chemicals routinely used in conventional farming.  Chemicals that are applied to the foods people eat.  Many will tell you that the food is perfectly safe to eat.  But for me, if you need to protect yourself like this just to apply the stuff, why would you want to eat it?

Which leads me to this little news gem:

Breaking: Monsanto Found Guilty of Chemical Poisoning in France

picture credit: L. Butler

These were harvested just about an hour ago, soon to be delivered to Gather Restaurant in Berkeley.  To help with perspective, here they are in Hailey’s hands:

picture credit: L. Butler

picture credit: Terri Basile

He is, by the way, every bit of crazy as he looks.  He is also the most loyal friend for our old timer, Hopse Apu:

picture credit: Terri Basile

This week’s box has salad reds and greens, rapini, rutabagas, collards, green garlic, mixed chard (Bietola and rainbow), Tenderstem broccoli, Napoli carrots.  Not shown (will be harvested tomorrow): radishes and Italian flat leaf parsley.

–posted by Steven

Not much to report on for this week.  We’ve got several project posts in the hopper, but nothing is ready to publish yet.

There have been numerous sightings, sadly none by your blogger, of a new family of bobcats (Lynx rufus) living on the property.  Adult bobcats are a pretty regular sight at Lindencroft, but kittens are another matter.  The family is a mother with her two very playful kittens (the fathers don’t stick around).  The kittens seem oblivious to the presence or peril of cars on our road, so they have let people get a good long look.  Unfortunately, no one has yet snapped a picture, but Linda said this one is a very good likeness of the kittens:

If you are driving up the farm road, stay alert for these guys, and you might just spot them on the first ridge just past the compost piles, where, not coincidentally, many cottontails (brush rabbits – Syvilagus bachmani)  live.

–Steven (and Linda)

This box has salad reds and greens, collards, Siberian kale, rapini, Pugliese cutting chicory, baby white turnips, and Marge’s eggs.  Not pictured: broccoli or cabbage.

–posted by Steven

As you could tell from last week’s box, we sometimes have more to put in your box than we said in this newsletter.  The reason can be that we simply find more veggies that just need to be harvested than we had expected, and sometimes it’s because we don’t have enough of something for everyone, and don’t want to set expectations only to disappoint some of you.  So we try to spread these bonus goodies around as fairly as we can.  If you don’t recognize something in your box, just drop us a line.

This last week, it was Steven who had to be out of town, so Linda was kept pretty busy and didn’t have time for that promised EcoFarm trip report.  She will get to it pretty soon.

With the hoop houses, we are planning to get a selection of summer crops started earlier than we could before.  It’s only going to be a small percentage of the total, but we should be able to give you tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants a bit earlier than we have in the past.  Linda has been ordering seeds like crazy, and they will get started in the greenhouses soon.  We’ll be posting a list of some of the varieties we will be doing this year – and the pepper list is quite impressive!

–Steven & Linda

Sown

–posted by Steven